Sprint’s WiMax venture under attack

An Illinois wireless company is seeking a court order to block Sprint Nextel’s new $14.5 billion WiMax spinoff venture.

The company iPCS, a smaller carrier that sells Sprint service over its own network, said in its lawsuit that Sprint intends to offer new high-speed wireless services that would compete unfairly against iPCS.

The company already has been successful in another lawsuit against Sprint. Rulings in that case have ordered Sprint eventually to stop owning and running the Nextel portion of its network in an exclusive territory granted to iPCS.

Sprint is taking preliminary steps toward appealing that case before the Illinois Supreme Court.

“We continue to believe that the lower courts misapplied the law and imposed extreme measures regarding our future operations of the (Nextel) network in iPCS territory,” said Matt Sullivan, a Sprint spokesman.

The new case that emerged Monday involves Sprint’s announcement last week that it intends to join other companies such as Clearwire, Comcast, Google,Intel and Time Warner Cable in forming a new WiMax company.

Click here to read complete article